Milwaukee, Wis. – In China, burping after a meal is a sign of good manners. The average American
will eat 28 pigs in their lifetime. According to the FDA, the stickers on fruit are edible. Fun
facts are just the beginning of what you will learn (and taste!) at the Milwaukee Public Museum’s
brand new national exhibit Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture. The exhibit, on loan from the
American Museum of Natural History, opens to the public on Friday, March 3, 2017. The exhibit
explores the complex and intricate food system that brings what we eat from farm to fork. With
opportunities to taste seasonal treats in the working demonstration kitchen, cook a virtual meal
and peek into the dining rooms of famous figures throughout history, visitors will experience the
intersection of food, nature, culture, health, and history. Through exhibits and constantly
changing special programming, MPM visitors will use all five of their senses as they explore all
things food.

“Food affects everyone on the planet,” said local exhibit curator Martha Davis Kipcak. “We all eat.
That’s why this exhibit is so important. And more than just important, it’s also a fun and
interactive way to understand how food both sustains our bodies and perpetuates our culture.
Meals are the places where families meet, business is conducted and where our senses are
stimulated.”

About the Exhibit
Global Kitchen highlights the numerous methods growers across the world use to feed our planet and
how the world’s largest industry (the food industry employs more than ONE BILLION people
worldwide!) is moving towards new growing techniques, ranging from test-tube meat grown from animal
stem cells to farms planted in skyscrapers.
Highlights of the exhibit include:

• A demonstration kitchen, sponsored by Meijer, which offers specialty programming that changes
every two weeks (programming list is attached)
• A “waste sculpture” containing the amount of food a U.S. family of four wastes per year:
1,656 pounds!
• A life-size re-creation of a 16th-century Aztec marketplace
• Food Ships, an interactive game that demonstrates the challenges associated with transporting
items like bananas, apples, tuna, and lamb around the world
• Signature dishes from around the world and how these have evolved through generations, from
Korean kimchi to Moroccan tagine
• Smelling stations featuring scents such as lemon, lavender, thyme, and fennel, vital ingredients
used in everything from candies to fish dishes to potent absinthe
• An interactive cooking table, where visitors “make” famous dishes eaten around the world

The demonstration kitchen helps visitors explore the complexities of flavor and present exhibits
that explain the biology of taste. Live programming in the kitchen will animate the experience of
food and flavor through daily samplings and activities ranging from taste tests to demonstrations
of dynamic cooking methods and visits from local farmers, chefs and nutrition experts.

Visitors to Global Kitchen can also look forward to:
• Discovering what a week’s worth of groceries includes for families from 16 different countries
• Exploring common breakfast foods from around the world, from Greek pancakes to Colombian changua
soup
• Sitting down at the tables of some illustrious individuals throughout history, including Empress
Livia of Rome, Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan, and author Jane Austen
• Looking at historic dishes, from Mohandas Ghandhi’s childhood meal to Michael Phelps’s
Olympian-sized breakfast

Food does more than keep us alive. It connects us to the land, to cultural heritage and to each
other. Global Kitchen takes visitors on a wide-ranging tour of foods that commemorate special
occasions, including colorful Ukrainian Easter eggs and sugar skulls from Mexico’s Day of the Dead.
A video invites visitors to join celebrations at a Thanksgiving dinner, a Chinese New Year, the Eid
feast marking the end of Ramadan, Oktoberfest and the Hindu festival Ganesh Chaturthi.

“This is more than an exhibit,” Davis Kipcak said. “It’s a cultural experience that connects us to
the rest of the world using our most common thread: food.”

Visitor Information
Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture is open to the public from Friday, March 3 through Wednesday,
July 19, 2017 at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Admission is $25 for adults, $20 for seniors (65+) and $18 for kids (5–13). Museum Members are $5 for adults and $4 for seniors
(65+) and kids (5-13). Children 4 and under are free. Every ticket price includes admission to both
Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture and MPM’s permanent exhibit galleries. You can also get
tickets at http://www.mpm.edu/.

Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New
York (amnh.org).

About the Milwaukee Public Museum (mpm.edu)
The Milwaukee Public Museum is a natural and human history museum located in downtown Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The museum was chartered in 1882 and opened to the public in 1884. MPM has three floors
of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a
rain forest and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref National Geographic Theater
and Planetarium. The museum houses more than 4 million objects and hosts nearly half a million
visitors each year.

The MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, and its
facilities and collections are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of
the public.

About the American Museum of Natural History (amnh.org)
The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869, is one of the world’s preeminent
scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. The Museum encompasses 45 permanent exhibition
halls, including those in the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden
Planetarium, as well as galleries for temporary exhibitions. It is home to New York State’s
official memorial to Theodore Roosevelt, a tribute to Roosevelt’s enduring legacy of
environmental conservation. The Museum’s approximately 200 scientists draw on a world-class
research collection of more than 33 million artifacts and specimens, and one of the largest natural
history libraries in the world. Through its Richard Gilder Graduate School, the Museum grants the
Ph.D. degree in Comparative Biology and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree, the only such
program at any museum in the United States. Annual physical attendance has grown to approximately 5
million, and the Museum’s exhibitions and Space Shows can be seen in venues on six continents. The
Museum’s website, digital videos, and apps for mobile devices bring its collections, exhibitions,
and educational programs to millions more around the world. Visit amnh.org for more information.
###